Immunohematology Laboratory, New York Blood Center, New York, NY 10021, USA.
BACKGROUND: The Cromer blood group system consists of seven high-incidence and three low-incidence antigens carried on decay-accelerating factor (DAF). This report describes the identification and characterization of a new Cromer high-incidence antigen, named GUTI. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: RT-PCR and sequence analysis were performed on cDNA prepared from a Chilean donor whose serum contained the alloantibody (anti-GUTI). Based on the observed point mutation, a PCR-RFLP assay using MaeII was developed. To map the epitope, DAF-deletion mutants were tested by immunoblotting with anti-GUTI. RESULTS: Sequence analysis revealed a substitution of 719G>A in DAF in the proband. The proband's parents and two daughters were heterozygotes for 719G>A, one sister whose RBCs typed GUTI- was homozygous for 719A, and one sister had the wild-type DAF (719G). Seven additional heterozygote samples were identified among 214 Chileans. No heterozygotes were found in 197 New York donors. Analysis using DAF-deletion mutants showed the antigenic determinant to be within short consensus repeat (SCR) 4. CONCLUSION: This study describes a novel high- incidence antigen (GUTI) in the Cromer blood group system characterized by the amino acid arginine at position 206 in SCR4 of DAF. The GUTI-negative proband has a substitution mutation that predicts for histidine at this position.